The Catholic Church was a pervasive and ever-present force in people’s lives across medieval Europe, whether they were a prince or a pauper. However, the authority of the Church had begun to be challenged. Mysticism abounded around Europe as people sought new answers to big questions, while certain secular institutions contested with the Church for control over people’s lives and loyalties. The century was bookended by challenges to papal authority, with the movement of the pope to Avignon in southern France in 1309, and the beginning of the ‘Western Schism’ in 1378, when the identity of the rightful pope was contested.
The effects of the plague on medieval society were in all likelihood more profound because of the inability of the devastated communities to identify what had caused the disease or how to treat it. This uncertainty likely fuelled the atmosphere of religious fanaticism and superstition that was already prevalent in the 14th century.
Fearing the plague was the wrath of God or a sign of the impending Final Judgment, societies across Europe re-examined their relationship with religious institutions that, until now, had formed the bedrock of their communities. The questions they faced in doing so, however, were not easily answered. Was the time right to re-assert the importance of religion in society and to consider the importance of living a good Christian life? Or had the plague revealed the limits of God’s benevolence? Was he angry at the direction the Church was taking?
It should be recognised that the Black Death also hit the Catholic Church very hard during the 14th century. Fearing the disease and unaware of the true cause of its spread, people flocked to monasteries seeking the protection of God and his servants. In the cramped conditions, the disease flourished, and devastated Europe’s clergy as much as any other demographic.
The death of so many nuns, friars, monks, and priests naturally prompted some to begin to wonder at the limits of their belief in protecting them. After all, if the plague was a punishment inflicted on society and a demonstration of God’s fury, then why where His clergy also perishing of the same disease?
“The plague... has left many parish churches... without parson or priest to care for their parishioners... Therefore, to provide for the salvation of souls... you should at once publicly command and persuade all men that, if they are on the point of death and cannot secure the services of a priest, then they should make confession to each other... if no man is present, then even to a woman.” Letter from Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath, to priests in his Diocese, January 1349
There was a greater interest in mysticism as a way of explaining the causes of things, including the plague itself (hence the belief in astrological causes, such as Boccaccio described in the Decameron). However, it should be stressed that the plague did not provoke any kind of widespread rejection of religious faith. It remained the central pillar of life.
The shaking of belief in the authority and knowledge of the Church was not helped by the attempts to rapidly recover. To attempt to counter the shortage of clergy, new members were rapidly trained up. Compared to their pre-pandemic predecessors, their grasp of the Holy Scriptures and the rigours of the calling reputedly left a lot to be desired…
The plague also provoked new movements to arise around Europe, including the Flagellants. These sects offered different interpretations of the Christian faith. Although the movements were condemned by the Church, they continued to be followed and testify to the weakening of the Church as a voice of doctrinal authority.
The fourth of the Avignon popes, Clement VI was head of the Catholic Church from 1342 until his death in 1352. Unfortunately for Clement, this meant that his papacy coincided with the devastating effects of the Black Death, which compounded the challenges to the Church’s temporal authority that characterised the 14th century more generally.
Clement VI’s approach to the plague was characteristic of approaches across Europe more generally. Although he attributed the plague to divine wrath, he also considered other explanations. Notably, he sought the opinions of astrologists, who argued that a celestial conjunction in 1341 was the real cause. He also appears to have been aware of Miasma theory: some of his physicians advised Clement to keep burning torches around him to ward off the bad air (Clement, to his credit, was sceptical). Another of his physicians was Guy de Chauliac, the author of Chirurgia magna, in which the physician identified the difference between the bubonic and pneumonic plague.
Perhaps Clement VI’s most notable act during the Black Death in the mid-14th century was to issue two papal bulls in 1348. The second of these, titled Quamis Perfidiam, condemned the antisemitic violence that had erupted in Europe as a result of the plague. He lambasted those who blamed the Jews for the spread of the disease as having been seduced by the Devil, and recognised that the Jews were a community suffering the effects of the disease as much as any other in many instances. As part of his attempt to curb the violence, he urged his clergy to protect Jews wherever they could.
Although the 14th century was riven by religious tensions as communities across Europe attempted to understand why they had seemingly been abandoned by their God, the period was also marked by attempts to reassert the supremacy of the Church in society. This had begun right at the start of the century, with Pope Boniface VIII issuing an important papal Bull. Known as ‘Unam Sanctam’ (‘One Holy’) on 18th November 1302. This document declared the unity of the Church (which would be challenged within the same century), but also that popes were the supreme heads of the Church, and thus wielding more authority than kings.
Although Boniface’s attempts were largely in vain (the papacy would be compelled to move to Avignon in the short term, for instance), the devastations of the plague also prompted a re-energisation of people’s faith in some communities in Europe. Although the Church tried to distance itself from the sect, the Flagellants represent one such movement. The sect’s interpretation of Christian doctrine may have shocked communities and appalled the papacy, but their popularity in the second half of the 14th century (and beyond) demonstrate that the belief in religion as a cure for societies problems remained just as strong as ever – if only one demonstrated their faith in the correct way, of course…
